Numerous network displaying systems exists in the world in many public or private premises for the purpose of displaying a intermittent information or a continuous information.
One particularly knows the displaying systems used in the hotels and which are based on the television present in the different rooms, and which is widely used for the purpose of displaying a multimedia message for the hotel guest, at least when the television is not used for viewing a specific TV program. Such display is well known and only allows a very “general” information since every guest is assumed to receive a same information.
One also knows the displays systems which use digital tablets providing information on products and associated tools for ordering marketed products, either by means of specific tools or web services. But such systems are known to be sophisticated and costly.
Systems based on internet protocol (IP) phones with a display are also used in some hotels. Among the more sophisticated ones, some displays are fitted with a HTML type tactile interface which allows the user to browse within some dedicated services (such as known in the digital tablets). They also provide the opportunity to transmit information via the known SIP protocol. Such protocol allows the opening of a session with a phone by using its name (which can be the name of the room within the hotel) for the purpose of conveying multimedia information by means of the HTTP protocol (Hyper Text Transfer Protocol). The phone, being identified by the SIP name, comprises an internal HTTP server which can receive messages. A local component within the Hotel network infrastructure is required for performing the mapping between the room number and the IP address so as to allow the messages to be forwarded to the dedicated room.
Digital photo frames are devices which are widely spread out, particularly in public premises and also in hotels. They achieve a quite interesting solution, cheap and elegant. They may use today two different techniques for remotely displaying information: MRSS flows (Media Real Simple Syndication) as well as the so-called DLNA standard (Digital Living Network Alliance).
The DNLA standard allows the establishment of a connection between many different multimedia devices existing in a local network. This technique is based on UPnP (Universal Plug & Play), which however does not allow the connection of a high number of devices and, moreover requires the arrangement of a specific multimedia server on a same local network (PC, NAS, DVD). Such technique is thus not suitable for a centralized management of a high number of displays.
The MRSS standard allows the registration to a server providing multimedia content which can be accessed through the Web (URL) and a periodic loading of such data so as to display the content. The adjustment of the different parameters can be achieved on the photo frame and the dynamic of the slideshow can not be completely controlled by the content provider.